Pinterest: Curate, Contribute, and Create

By: Lisa Johnson


So... I am now a total Pinterest addict. A friend of mine had requested that I join a few months ago and I have heard a lot of hype about it in recent weeks, but I didn't truly get it until I spent 30 minutes perusing boards. So picture a Facebook feed of images highlighting your interests... scrap-booking or art journaling, home decor, DIY gifts, educational crafts,  etc...  Instead of scouring magazines and clipping out ideas, simply scan through boards online or on a mobile device and virtually pin your favorites to your own board for future use.

Pinterest: Homemade Gift Ideas

I would first recommend curating your own board by re-pinning others ideas. This is what I have been doing for a few weeks now and it has kept me pining for time to complete all of these ingenious crafty ideas before the holidays. The two main boards of interest for me are "Home Projects" and "Homemade Gift Ideas".  So many wonderfully crafty and inspiring ideas... so little time.

Pinterest: Home Projects

Once you have started making your way through the plethora of existing pins and desired crafts and projects, you will want to start creating your own boards and pins to highlight your own crafty achievements, goals, or interests. Such a wonderful tool for being socially creative and globally connected.

Win a $15 gift card to The Stone: Now to the contest...please submit a link to your favorite board or pin (yours or another's) with a few words about why you love it or how you have used it. All comments will be entered in a drawing for a $15 gift card to the Stone Coffee Bar in Gruene. Please submit before Friday December 16th. Happy pinning!

Also check out a follow-up blog on Pinterest which highlights (and includes before and after pics) a few of my personal projects inspired by Pinterest and more reasons why Pinterest is my new addiction.

Flat Stanley

By: Lisa Johnson

October's Fondest Memories: October can be a busy month with pumpkins, costumes, candy, and assorted festivities. While Flat Stanley and his friends enjoyed carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating, some of their most fondest memories were of going out to eat with friends and family.

Some of their favorite local hangouts were:

• Buddy's Backyard: Great food (love the bean and cheese nachos), affordable prices, friendly service... and an amazing outdoor patio complete with a play area for the kids.  
• The Stone Coffee Bar: Amazing service! The family favorites are the frozen hot chocolates for the children and the Samoan Chill for mom.
• Huisache Grill: With two preschool-aged boys, we don't go out to nice restaurants all that often. However, we do frequently bring in tortilla soup from Huisache. It is absolutely delicious and a nice complement to the colder weather.

Interested in how you can use Flat Stanley to promote literacy, check out these ideas.

Stay tuned for an upcoming scrappy (scrap-booking) challenge... more details to come soon.

Funky Fair Winner

By: Lisa Johnson

I hope everyone had a fabulous time with the Funky Fair Pics contest. I am always pleased when I can find a free tool to create cool picture effects (filters, frames, etc...). Many moms used Picnik and were not as familiar with the other tools so this was a fun time to play with new photo-editing tools.

It was very hard to choose a winner so I decided my best course of action (and the "fairest") was to write everyone's name on a sheet of paper, put it in a hat, and draw a winner. So without further ado... with drumroll please... our winner is...

... "Evie Parade" created with BeFunky.com and submitted by Amy Merritt.


I have created a slideshow using iPhoto to showcase all of the fabulous and funky entries. If you have a Mac and are not using iPhoto, totally check it out! It took me less than 5 minutes to assemble this slide show, export it to iTunes, and upload it to the blog. (If you don't have a Mac, stay tuned for upcoming posts which will feature free tools to create animated photo slideshows similar to this one.)

I would also like to share my three favorites:

Being Cowboys: Perhaps I am biased as I have two little boys but something about this picture just stood out to me. The boys are absolutely adorable as is the backdrop. Love the frame and color too! (submitted by Kristina Hanney)

Surfin' at the Fair: This pic is just totally vibrant and the perspective is right on. Cowabunga! (submitted by Kristin Rush)

 

Here Piggy Piggy: The filter and the cropped edges took me back to some of my mom's 4H pics and I just think there is something so beautiful and timeless about those images. (also submitted by Kristin Rush)

Stay tuned for an upcoming post involving Flat Stanley NB!